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Swapping Out Software?

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40hz:
I've decided that my next machine will be a server. It will run a Virtual Environment (VE) with VMs running inside. No more OS bare on the metal nonsense. I'm just sick of it. (That's also when I plan on shifting to Linux as my primary OS.)
-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 10:00 PM)
--- End quote ---

When you do finally shift over, you'll be pleased to discover it works quite well. Proxmox VE is a good choice for running VMs
 :Thmbsup:

40hz:
Next thing you know, you'll need to have your car, fridge, TV, radio, etc., all connected so that you can be checked on to see that you really own your own stuff.
-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 10:00 PM)
--- End quote ---

We'll never really know for sure about that until we see the rest of Snowden's slides. Who knows? Maybe they're doing it already. :tellme:

sword:
Windows app. ..........|  main use ..........|  Linux app.
 
Photoshop                |  draw                  |  Gimp, Krita, Alchemy, Inkscape, (Blender)

MS Access,               |  db, table, form, |  Kexi (recent use)
Database Pro            |  report, search

MS OneNote,             |  notes                |  Getting Things Gnome,
Dragon Nat. Spk.,      |                           |  org-mode
Via Voice Advanced    |

Wordperfect,                |  tags, outlines    |  Tagspaces, org-mode, FreePlane, Pyrenamer
(custom design)

Wordperfect Master     |  cheat sheets     |  Tgif (recent use)
Documents, OneNote  |  (hierarchical,
                                     |  navigate in)

Adobe Illustrator           |  svg, zui           |  Inkscape, DIA, FreeMind, Delineate (trace),
and line trace,               |                         |  Image Magic, Xara LX
Eagle Mode                   |

Partition Magic              |  partitioning      |  GParted

TaoPhoenix:
Has anyone recently abandoned any software in favour of another piece of software?
...
So? Anyone?
-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 04:58 AM)
--- End quote ---

Great Topic! I have three of examples! I'll do them in separate posts in case they spawn their own spinoff discussions. (Notice - I feel it's important not to use the "ad hominem names" for stuff - no "M$ Windoze" etc. However evil a company is, as a discussant you lose instantly when you resort to that stuff!)

#1: "Browser Wars" - 2004
I date my modern (modest!) understanding of computers to about 2004, starting when I was first in between jobs last time. As I began understanding all the issues that are "old hat today" such as Lock-in tricks, three categories of software tied to MS became apparent. Listed in approximate increasing order of converting out of, they are Browsers, Office, and Windows. After a few attempts, some of which are noted here at DC, I simply decided to stay with Windows, and instead became one of the "wait and see" crowd watching the state of Windows from within the ecosystem.

I already knew I had no particular devotion to Internet Explorer, so it felt like an easy first step. And it was. I only do about "ten things" with a browser, so way back in 2004, there weren't many serious contenders. I glanced at Safari and didn't really care for it. So Firefox it was. The add-ons were the selling point, and are to this day. (Though lately the Interface has become part of the discussion!)

So the first point in "Abandoning" is how invested you were in the original program. I had zero alliance to IE and was just old enough to remember laughing at IE 2 back in the Netscape days, and missed the "zeitgeist change" somewhere about 2002 when IE really locked in. My company never used any precisely specific locked-to-IE apps, so that made it easy to learn Firefox and there I stay. Yes, there are creaks and quirks, but I'd be *really unhappy* to have to move to anything else! (Especially since we lost Opera as an option!)

TaoPhoenix:

#2: Office
This one has a bit longer of a history. I didn't exactly have qualms about using company paid copies of Office, so I just did my thing. But at home, to be sure, I didn't feel like buying a *second* copy of it! So pretty soon Open Office showed up. I was just old enough to have seen (I think?) Version 2.x series and it had *such* a strange layout, that while I respected the concept, as a user you have to be able to *use* your new replacement, and I just didn't get the oomph to do it, but I kept it sorta on my "check in next year" category.

Then somewhere about the version 3.x series they understood that you need to make it close to the original you are competing with, and that's when I was at least able to use it for real for a fair many things.

But ya know? OO and now LibreOffice still have a bunch of things that just are laid out differently, and about this year when I am doing more serious spreadsheet stuff at home, I decided that mattered. I am a fan of "durable knowledge". If I learn something, I like it to still be valid for X years, and not instantly be replaced by Next Year's News. After briefly observing the upgrade to Libre 4.x, all those things were there...

I went this year with the promo for Kingsoft Office. (I left the Writer on Libre, no qualms there.) But for spreadsheets, however they did it, they just managed to mirror MS's placement of features. Roughly I count about 20 simple things that I rely on in spreadsheets, and using the "muscle memory" I learned at work on the "real" MS package, just made the switch to Kingsoft easier.

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